Working in a school district the last 16 years has led me to dislike August. August should be one of the best months of the year. The weather is usually good. There is plenty of daylight to get out and do things. You still get fresh vegetables from the garden. There are so many things to like.
That being said working IT in a school August is the month with all the headaches. You have been scrambling around all summer taking care of projects, and getting things ready for the start of school. There is a level of frenzy that I can only equate with working at Target the day after Thanksgiving. My Boss and the school board have really supported the IT department over the years, I have been allowed to hire a student or three to come in, and I am able to bring back a person early that only works during the school year. That really helps, but it only slows down the crazy.
My August finally hit yesterday. While we were finally finishing up the new computer deployment, we learned that Adobe is changing our licensing for their software. Normally this wouldn’t be that big a problem. I would simply have waited until after the school year started migrated the licenses, and then done the software updates. This, though, is a major issue as the new IT Director is still learning how the basics work, and throwing in an issue like adobe licensing is a distraction he doesn’t need. So yesterday we started the process of migrating the license, and he is going to get a crash course in learning how to push software out via SCCM.
We also learned yesterday, that a configuration on the new computers is causing some of the other software that was pushed out automatically to not install correctly. This whole process is complicated by the fact that our anxious teachers are beginning to come into the buildings. So while we are neck deep in solving district and school wide problems. We are being bombarded with forgotten passwords, and other individual problems. As usual we will get everything done, and the school year will start, and the worries will soon be forgotten, but the NOW is really crazy.
On the move front; things have taken a turn for the better., I accepted an offer on the house, so I don’t have that to worry about that any longer. I now just have to learn what I need to do to close on the house while living on another continent. The house was already pretty empty, but this week I am getting everything else out of the house, Most of the “things” have already been dealt with. Before my wife moved we made dozens of trips to Good Will with donations, and we filled up a dumpster or two! The things we had left in the house, were things I needed to live or items we thought the kids might want for their apartments. The last child moves back to college this weekend, so after I get her moved on Saturday it will be just me and the cat. Living in a house that will be furnished with an air mattress, a litter box, and the 6 barstools the new homeowners wanted. I figure it will be like camping indoors for my last days in Wisconsin.